Exodus: Machine War 1 Supernova. (13 page)

The same
procedure was being followed in the capital of Tsarzor, Tsranar, and the
capitals of all the smaller nations would soon follow.  And then every military
base, every major corporate headquarters.  If there was anyone involved in the
terrorist or guerrilla attacks in any of these organizations, eventually the
word would get back to Admiral Nguyen, who would then act.

Chapter Eleven

Search and rescue operations can
involve from one person to an entire task group.  The size of the operation is
not the only measure of its importance.  The saving of any sentient life is of
the utmost importance.

The Imperial Navy Manual of
Search and Rescue Operations.

DECEMBER 23
^RD
, 1000. 
D-194.

Eight ships
translated down to hyper I a couple of light seconds from the limit.  The ships
insystem had tracked them from their approach through VI, their highest hyper,
down through the dimensions and into normal space.  They had been expected, but
any commander worth his salt tried to be ready for the unexpected even when the
expected was scheduled.

Ships’ captains and
tactical officers still breathed a sigh of relief as what came out of hyper and
into normal space matched up with those expectations.  The largest ships were a
pair of fast freighters, seven million tons of vessel, including over four
million tons of cargo each in their voluminous holds.  Almost as large were a
pair of liners, five million tons, capable of carrying six thousand passengers
in comfort, or almost three times that number in cryo.  Each carried a
battalion of Marines, detached from the brigade that garrisoned the Exploration
Command base from which the ships had originated.  A light cruiser headed the
escort, along with a pair of destroyers.

Admiral Nguyen
read the message from the grav pulse transmission, sent by Commodore Natasha
Khrushchev, the commander of the convoy.  His own orders had already been
transmitted by the same method from his com section.  He wanted those
freighters in orbit and unloading as soon as possible.  The fusion reactors and
electromag generators would allow them to place particle protection around a
number of the sites the natives were preparing.

Nguyen pulled up
one of the sites, in, of course, Tsarzor, since only they and their ideological
allies were trying to save some of their people.  Honish and their coreligionist
couldn’t seem to care less about saving anyone, and were still arguing over the
airwaves that such efforts were against the will of their God.  The problem
with digging in was the amount of material needed to protect living things from
the massive wave of particle radiation that was coming.  It could be done, but
it would take most of the efforts of the building nations to put a relative few
into the ground, whereas high tech protection allowed the construction of
shelters much closer to the surface.

“Sir,” came the
voice of Captain Susan Lee over the com.  “Intelligence thinks they have a lead
on the attacks.”

“Tell me,”
ordered the Admiral.

“Let me show you
instead, sir,” said the Chief of Staff, and a holo sprung into existence over
the Admiral’s desk.

The image showed
what looked like a conference room, with Klassekians in the military uniforms
of the Nation of Honish sitting in their peculiar looking chairs around a large
table.

“We have the
bombs in place, sir,” said what looked like a young alien with the rank
insignia of a ship commander in their navy.  “At your command, we can detonate
them.  All at once, or one at a time.”

“I think it
would be more effective if we set them off one at a time, sir,” said another
officer, this one a division commander in the male only military of the
ultra-religious nation.

“But if we set
them off one at a time, we will alert the aliens to our plan,” said yet another
officer, this one a wing commander in the air force of the nation.  “They will
increase their search assets, and with their technology, they would be very
likely to find our unexploded weapons.”

“I still like
the idea of setting them off in a sequence,” said the male with the most ornate
uniform in the room, sitting at the head of the table, both indications that he
was in charge.  “But it isn’t really up to me.  I have to kick this upstairs,
and see what he says.”

And who the
hell is he?
thought the Admiral, trying to will the male to say a name.

The conversation
went on for some minutes before the officers started getting to their feet and
filing out of the room.  “What else do we have?”

“We think we
have a copy of their operations plan,” said the Chief of Staff.  “At least it
looks like it, and some of these same people had met on it last week.”

The holo
changed, the view of the room fading and another room, this one much smaller,
with the kind of lighting that reminded the Admiral of a dungeon like chamber
deep beneath a building.  Some of the same people who had been in the last holo
were in this one.  Nguyen had trouble differentiating between the aliens, but
the computer didn’t have that difficulty.

The view changed
to look down on the table as the computer took the take from the nanites
scattered through the room to give a shot of the most important angle.  There
was a map on the table, showing all of the land masses of the planet.  And
sixteen dots on that map.

“We think these
are their targets,” said Lee, and the action stopped and the holo zoomed in on
one target after the other.  “Six shelter sites, five Tsarzorian cities, and
five landing zones that we have been using.”

“I want all of
those areas searched, and any warheads there disarmed,” ordered the Admiral,
pointing at the holo.

“Do you want us
to take those officers into custody?”

“A couple of
them,” he said after a moment’s thought.  “A few on the periphery, that we
might be able to spirit away without creating too many suspicions.”

The Admiral
looked again at the map, now presented in its entirety.  “How are our studies
of Klassekian neurology coming?”

“If you mean,
have we developed nonlethal gases that are effective against them, then the
answer is yes,” replied the Chief of Staff.  “That was actually relatively
easy, once our biological staff got on it.  As far as working on
nano-interrogation?  That’s a different matter altogether.”

The Admiral
nodded, wondering if they should have started that research earlier than they
had.  If Albright should have started on it before he had arrived. 
No use
worrying about the past.
  “How much do we know?”

“We have a
pretty good handle on whether they are lying or not when we question them.  As
far as tapping into their memories?  That’s a different matter entirely.”

“Push the
research,” he ordered, scowling as he saw the disapproval on his Chief of Staff’s
face.

“I’m not sure
that’s ethical.  Not with the volunteers at least.  They volunteered to help us
with our research into their biology, so we might be able to transport more of
them to safety.”

There had been
several thousand volunteers from Tsarzor, open minded citizens who were willing
to do almost everything for the promise that their families would be
transported off the world before the radiation wave hit.  There had been many
groups of siblings in the mass of people, giving the Imperials even more
insight into the phenomenon that allowed Klassekians of the same litter to
communicate across almost any distance.

Some of them had
been used to test incapacitating agents, something that a few of the medical
staff had balked at, until it was explained to them that it might otherwise be
necessary to use lethal force on those who tried to interfere with the
evacuation.  After that they had proceeded, cautiously, and none of the natives
had been harmed in that testing.

But this would
be an angle of research of much greater risk and invasiveness than even the
testing of the incapacitating agents.  Nanites would have to be injected in
great quantities into the minds of the aliens, used to monitor the release and
absorption of neurotransmitters at trillions of synapses during the
presentation of various stimuli, not all pleasant.  It was a long, drawn out
process, and had been used on many other alien races in order to get a look
into memories and thought processes.  It allowed intelligence interrogators to
ask questions of, and receive information from, the most intransient of
subjects.

“Just do the
preliminary scans on the volunteers then,” ordered Nguyen after some thought. 
“We’ll obtain some other subjects for the more intrusive procedures.”

“What kind of subjects?”
asked Lee.

“The kind that
look to already be involved in trying to make us abort our mission,” growled
Nguyen.  “That kind.  So see to it that we have some of that kind.”

An hour later,
Nguyen was in a video conference with First Councilman Contena.

“We should be
able to load up the first twenty thousand of your people in the next couple of
days,” said the Admiral, looking into the face of the Leader of Tsarzor.  He
was almost proficient at reading the expressions of those faces, and could tell
that the Councilman was excited about the news.

“Do you have a
place to bring them?” asked the alien.  “And how long will it take to get
there?”

Good
questions
, thought the Admiral.  The less time it took, the more trips the
liners could make, and with them the freighters that could bring enough
supplies for them to survive until they got their own agriculture going.  But
they needed a planet that met several requirements.  For one, it couldn’t be
within twenty light years of the blue giant, or they would just have to be
either moved or shielded again in the near future.  It also couldn’t be
inhabited by an intelligent species, unless such a race could be convinced to
allow the strangers to settle.  And the environment must be suitable for the
biology of the settlers.  Not all biologies were compatible.  Some were indeed
deadly.

“We’re still
working on a place to settle them permanently,” said Nguyen.  “But we could
always start by taking the first groups to our base.   We can expand it to
handle at least a hundred thousand of your people.”

“And your
shielding of our shelters?” asked the leader, his species’ equivalent of a
scowl on his face, teeth showing.

“The freighters
have enough fusion reactors and electromagnetic field projectors to protect
maybe a dozen shelters.  And we should be able to produce enough shielding
material to handle the neutrons.”

“So, you can
maybe protect a couple of million people.”

“That’s the bad
news, First Councilman.  However, there is some good.”

“And I can’t
wait to hear this news.”

“First off, more
equipment will be coming, and we will also be setting up factories to build
reactors and projectors in place.  Probably more than you need for your
shelters, though we will also add to those, with your permission.”

“That is
wonderful news.  Any other?”

“All of the
people saved will be yours or those of your allies, since the Honish don’t seem
to want to have anything to do with us.”

“I am worried
that they might do something to, sidetrack, I think is the term, the rescue
attempt.”

“We are aware of
that as well, First Councilman.  Our intelligence services are monitoring all
of their communications.” 
And yours as well
, thought the Admiral,
something he wouldn’t say, but was pretty sure he didn’t have to.

“I have a
question for you, Admiral,” said the First Councilman.  “I’m not sure if you
will answer it, but I still have to ask.  What would you people have done if
none of us had been willing to cooperate in our own rescue?”

“Why, we would
have taken as many of you as we could by force,” said the Admiral with a
smile.  “Don’t get me wrong.  One of our prime values is to respect the
decisions of other species.  However, an even more important value is to not
let any species go extinct, if we can prevent it.  All worlds have a biological
distinctiveness that we feel must be preserved.”

“Even though the
Universe has been ending species, entire ecosystems, for billions of years? 
And is doing so this day, and will into the future.”

“You aren’t a
believer are you, First Councilman?”

“I was raised to
believe,” said the being, giving a head motion of negation.  “I wanted to go on
believing.  But my siblings, especially the engineer and the general, lost
their belief as they delved into science, and all of our thoughts influence
those of the others who are connected.  So I lost my belief as well.  No,
Admiral.  I believe in science, and the power of the intelligent mind to shape
our own future.  Not what some deity ordains.”

“Many of our
people still believe, despite our scientific progress,” said Nguyen, thinking
of his own parents.  “They compartmentalize, faith in one box, the Universe in
another.  But many of us can’t do that anymore.  Which doesn’t make us cold and
uncaring as concerns our fellow beings, like many of the religious claim. 
Instead, it makes us care more, since we realize that there is no caring God
out there, looking after his peoples.  It’s an uncaring Universe.  It couldn’t
care less that your world, billions of years of evolution leading to your
people, is now within range of a blue giant star about to snuff out all of that
hard fought progress.  So it’s up to us to do what we can, those of us who are
lucky enough to have the technology to do what we are able to.”

“And you don’t
think you’re superior to us primitive aborigines?”

“I can’t say
none of my people do.  But most of us don’t think that way.  We just started up
our technological path before you did.  Once you are up to our level, you may
very well surpass us in the near future.”

“Well, Admiral,
I for one am very glad that you found us when you did.  I’m biased, but I hate
to think that my people might have ended, and a people like yours only found
the remains of our civilization.”

“Believe me,
First Councilman.  We have found enough of those civilizations, though most
ended themselves.”